Sleeping On A Plane Easiest In The Window Seat, Say Experts

When it comes to deciding whether you’d rather an aisle or a window seat on a plane, there’s a complex web of pros and cons.

The window gives you something to look at, obviously, but the aisle allows you to get up and down freely without appealing to the kindness of strangers. On the other hand, being in the window seat means you’ll only ever be making someone else accommodate your movements, while an aisle-sitter will be the terminally disturbed.

For those of us of lengthy physiology, of course, the aisle has a massive plus: you get a little bit of extra room for your legs, which in economy class will be painfully hemmed in by the seat in front. However, that’s a double-edged sword too: when you try to relieve your knee with a sideways rotation, the drinks cart comes along and whacks it.

But we can say definitively now that the window has one indisputable advantage over the aisle, and it’s science that has informed us of it: the window seat is unambiguously the best seat to catch forty winks in.

Sleep science coach Bill Fish–yep, that’s a job–confirmed to Business Insider that the ability for the window sitter to properly rest their head and neck, along with the aforementioned lack of disturbance from seat-leavers – makes the window the place to be if you want some shuteye on a plane. And let’s face it, the best way to fly is always unconscious.

So if you’re worried about squeezed legs or feel embarrassed asking people to let you pass, the aisle may be appealing. But for those who want nothing more than to get on a plane and wake up at the destination without living through the tedium of flight, the window cannot be beaten.